OT:Smart Phones

[dbdynsty25]

All this talk about Androids and iPhones, and I've used both, but I really, really love my wp7. In fact, after using one for the last year and a half, I find the UI in both the other products absolutely awful and unweildy by comparison. I still have a dinosaur of a phone (Samsung Focus), but it's been a very good phone. Either going to upgrade to a Nokia Lumia 900 toward the end of the year, or, hopefully, get a new wp8. I can't see myself ever going back to either Android or iPhone.

Someone's gotta buy the phones...or else they wouldn't be in business. Nothing wrong with Windows phone...in fact, if they actually had decent Google services integration I'd be all over it...especially the Lumia 900, but they don't, so it's dead to me. I am actually shocked they are still around after a year and a half or whatever it's been. I still have NEVER seen someone in person with a Windows phone. It's really bizarre. Only place I see them is in the store.

[Spooky]

This is a SICK Android app...for anyone that has an NFC enabled Samsung phone (Galaxy Nexus, Galaxy SIII)...you buy these little tags and you place them in places like on your bedside table and your office desk. When you tap your phone on it it'll set up your phone in a pre-configured way. Like for example, you phone has a loud ringer normally, you tap it on the one next to your bedside table and it puts the on mute and sets your alarm for a specific time. Just awesome.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/deta ... Y3RpbGUiXQ..

The tags are a bit expensive at 5 for $20 bucks, but anytime you have a samsung phone they will work going forward so it's a pretty cool investment. Sure there are apps that can change profiles by time/date, but those are static and if you go to bed an hour late one day your sound will have been off for an hour already. Anyway, just thought I'd pass another badass piece of Android tech along since WWDC was this week and Apple introduced iOS users to a bunch of stuff Android has been doing for years.

Very cool. I'm assuming this will work for my Galaxy Note...!?!

When you say you have to "tap on" you mean that if you wake your phone up near one of these sensors it then initiates that specific profile?

NVM - I understand the "tapping'' on the thing now...

[dbdynsty25]

Yeah tapping just means getting the phone within range of the NFC card...so the phone can wirelessly read and configure itself. Last I checked, the At&t Galaxy Note doesn't have NFC unlocked from the factory. However, the guys at XDA of course have fixed that issue. Not sure how comfortable you are with hacking a phone that you just purchased, but it is pretty easy.

Here are the XDA At&t Note forums: http://forum.xda-developers.com/forumdisplay.php?f=1493

The other thing to note, haha get it, is that when ICS hits the Note it'll probably unlock it automatically so you can always just sit tight until then if you don't want to hack your phone up already. Btw...been a few weeks now, still liking it?

[Spooky]

Yeah tapping just means getting the phone within range of the NFC card...so the phone can wirelessly read and configure itself. Last I checked, the At&t Galaxy Note doesn't have NFC unlocked from the factory. However, the guys at XDA of course have fixed that issue. Not sure how comfortable you are with hacking a phone that you just purchased, but it is pretty easy.

Here are the XDA At&t Note forums: http://forum.xda-developers.com/forumdisplay.php?f=1493

The other thing to note, haha get it, is that when ICS hits the Note it'll probably unlock it automatically so you can always just sit tight until then if you don't want to hack your phone up already. Btw...been a few weeks now, still liking it?

Well - I sold my iPhone so there's no going back now. I am totally digging it. Sure, there have been a small handfull of quirky things but overall I think it's a great phone and I am loving the Android customization. However, I have become a tad obsessed with the customization aspect. And it does require a lot of research to figure out how to do the things you want it to. It's very time consuming. I love it, but it also has started to take over my life. Lol.

The phone itself is just incredible. The screen quality and size are amazing. It literally took me like a day to get used to the larger size. Now I can't imagine using a smaller screen.

I'm a bit nervous about ICS for Note though. The people that have been abel to upgrade so far have stated a tremendous battery life hit. That worries me. Oh...on that note (see, I can do it too), do you have any expert battery saving tips/tricks/apps that you swear by?

[wco81]

MS is suppose to reveal whether any WP can be upgraded to Windows 8 Phone soon.

Nokia announced more losses and major job cuts. By the time Windows 8 launches, there may not be major manufacturer for Windows 8 phone, unless MS finally buys them.

[dbdynsty25]

Well - I sold my iPhone so there's no going back now. I am totally digging it. Sure, there have been a small handfull of quirky things but overall I think it's a great phone and I am loving the Android customization. However, I have become a tad obsessed with the customization aspect. And it does require a lot of research to figure out how to do the things you want it to. It's very time consuming. I love it, but it also has started to take over my life. Lol.

The phone itself is just incredible. The screen quality and size are amazing. It literally took me like a day to get used to the larger size. Now I can't imagine using a smaller screen.

I'm a bit nervous about ICS for Note though. The people that have been abel to upgrade so far have stated a tremendous battery life hit. That worries me. Oh...on that note (see, I can do it too), do you have any expert battery saving tips/tricks/apps that you swear by?

Ahhh welcome to Android...where obsessing about your home screen customization can take over your life. It's awesome huh? LOL.

As for battery life...I seem to get better battery life than most for some reason. I don't do anything out of the ordinary in terms of adjusting brightness or killing gps so I'm not sure why mine is so good. Literally the only thing have that is syncing is my google services (email/calendar/contacts/etc.) so everything else I set to update manually (Facebook/Twitter/G+)...so maybe that's it. They all are generally defaulted to like 15 min. or so...so killing that process helps tremendously. Start there. It is one of the downsides to that gigantic screen...it takes a lot of juice to power it.

[dbdynsty25]

Oh and the OG Max Payne is now available on Android. Ridiculously good on a mobile device for 3 bucks. Been out on iOS for a while and the port went smoothly.

[Murph]

All this talk about Androids and iPhones, and I've used both, but I really, really love my wp7. In fact, after using one for the last year and a half, I find the UI in both the other products absolutely awful and unweildy by comparison. I still have a dinosaur of a phone (Samsung Focus), but it's been a very good phone. Either going to upgrade to a Nokia Lumia 900 toward the end of the year, or, hopefully, get a new wp8. I can't see myself ever going back to either Android or iPhone.

Someone's gotta buy the phones...or else they wouldn't be in business. Nothing wrong with Windows phone...in fact, if they actually had decent Google services integration I'd be all over it...especially the Lumia 900, but they don't, so it's dead to me. I am actually shocked they are still around after a year and a half or whatever it's been. I still have NEVER seen someone in person with a Windows phone. It's really bizarre. Only place I see them is in the store.

I see it when someone posts on Facebook with it. For some reason, iOS and Android just say 'Mobile' when posting. Blackberry and Windows phones show their little icon.

[dbdynsty25]

I see it when someone posts on Facebook with it. For some reason, iOS and Android just say 'Mobile' when posting. Blackberry and Windows phones show their little icon.

They are the ones that need to do the promotion...Android and iOS are content.

[Teal]

All this talk about Androids and iPhones, and I've used both, but I really, really love my wp7. In fact, after using one for the last year and a half, I find the UI in both the other products absolutely awful and unweildy by comparison. I still have a dinosaur of a phone (Samsung Focus), but it's been a very good phone. Either going to upgrade to a Nokia Lumia 900 toward the end of the year, or, hopefully, get a new wp8. I can't see myself ever going back to either Android or iPhone.

Someone's gotta buy the phones...or else they wouldn't be in business. Nothing wrong with Windows phone...in fact, if they actually had decent Google services integration I'd be all over it...especially the Lumia 900, but they don't, so it's dead to me. I am actually shocked they are still around after a year and a half or whatever it's been. I still have NEVER seen someone in person with a Windows phone. It's really bizarre. Only place I see them is in the store.

Well, I keep up with the progress of wp7, because I have a vested interest in seeing it succeed, and apparently, it's gaining quite a bit of momentum, finally. Nokia's Lumia certainly helped, but really, all it takes most of the time is just to let people have my phone for a few and play around with it. Too many people heard a bunch of negative crap (who don't speak fanboyism and don't know what it is!), and assumed WP was crap. It most certainly isn't. It IS quite different, and it's differences are what I have come to absolutely love about the platform.

[dbdynsty25]

Well, I keep up with the progress of wp7, because I have a vested interest in seeing it succeed, and apparently, it's gaining quite a bit of momentum, finally. Nokia's Lumia certainly helped, but really, all it takes most of the time is just to let people have my phone for a few and play around with it. Too many people heard a bunch of negative crap (who don't speak fanboyism and don't know what it is!), and assumed WP was crap. It most certainly isn't. It IS quite different, and it's differences are what I have come to absolutely love about the platform.

It is definitely an enjoyable UI...again, I'd have a Windows phone if they gave sh*t about Google services which I'm heavily vested in, as well as all of my friends (wonder why, lol). So I simply can't switch because of the pain in the ass it would make everything else in my life. I loved the Zune HD and seeing an entire OS built upon that Metro layout is fantastic. People can like how it looks all they want, but if they don't provide the services that people use, it's going to be tough sledding as far as marketshare goes. That's the issue that they should be worrying about.

[Teal]

Well, I keep up with the progress of wp7, because I have a vested interest in seeing it succeed, and apparently, it's gaining quite a bit of momentum, finally. Nokia's Lumia certainly helped, but really, all it takes most of the time is just to let people have my phone for a few and play around with it. Too many people heard a bunch of negative crap (who don't speak fanboyism and don't know what it is!), and assumed WP was crap. It most certainly isn't. It IS quite different, and it's differences are what I have come to absolutely love about the platform.

It is definitely an enjoyable UI...again, I'd have a Windows phone if they gave sh*t about Google services which I'm heavily vested in, as well as all of my friends (wonder why, lol). So I simply can't switch because of the pain in the ass it would make everything else in my life. I loved the Zune HD and seeing an entire OS built upon that Metro layout is fantastic. People can like how it looks all they want, but if they don't provide the services that people use, it's going to be tough sledding as far as marketshare goes. That's the issue that they should be worrying about.

I think that's less about Microsoft and more about Google, really...which, of course, from a market perspective, I understand. I also understand your hesitancy to adopt the platform. I couldn't give two green shits about google integration, so I'm good...

[dbdynsty25]

I think that's less about Microsoft and more about Google, really...which, of course, from a market perspective, I understand. I also understand your hesitancy to adopt the platform. I couldn't give two green shits about google integration, so I'm good...

Which is exactly why you're part of the <5% of smartphone users who use a Windows Phone. Gmail, I believe, has a majority of the email accounts on smartphones these days (including iPhones), so it would be smart for everyone to make it accessible. It's not about google, it's about the companies freezing their users out. iPhones had to have a developer make a real gmail client (Sparrow) to make it worth a crap. Windows phone needs the same thing or it'll never catch up.

[Teal]

I think that's less about Microsoft and more about Google, really...which, of course, from a market perspective, I understand. I also understand your hesitancy to adopt the platform. I couldn't give two green shits about google integration, so I'm good...

Which is exactly why you're part of the <5% of smartphone users who use a Windows Phone. Gmail, I believe, has a majority of the email accounts on smartphones these days (including iPhones), so it would be smart for everyone to make it accessible. It's not about google, it's about the companies freezing their users out. iPhones had to have a developer make a real gmail client (Sparrow) to make it worth a crap. Windows phone needs the same thing or it'll never catch up.

Wait, Gmail? I use Gmail. It's built right into the UI, so now I'm back to not quite understanding what you mean. My Gmail is just fine.

[Aristo]

I think that's less about Microsoft and more about Google, really...which, of course, from a market perspective, I understand. I also understand your hesitancy to adopt the platform. I couldn't give two green shits about google integration, so I'm good...

Which is exactly why you're part of the <5% of smartphone users who use a Windows Phone. Gmail, I believe, has a majority of the email accounts on smartphones these days (including iPhones), so it would be smart for everyone to make it accessible. It's not about google, it's about the companies freezing their users out. iPhones had to have a developer make a real gmail client (Sparrow) to make it worth a crap. Windows phone needs the same thing or it'll never catch up.

Wait, Gmail? I use Gmail. It's built right into the UI, so now I'm back to not quite understanding what you mean. My Gmail is just fine.

That is pretty funny. I have a Gmail account now because I spent two weeks with my daughter's Android phone, as I traded her my WP7 phone. She wouldn't trade back, so I sold it and bought another Quantum. So now I have my regular email and Gmail tiles right next to each other.

I'll never own another Android phone. I had no idea just how much easier WP7 makes my everyday tasks that I use my phone for. the downside is that I don't get to tell everyone how many apps I could use, like the $5 I spent on Doggcatcher that sucks compared to the podcast software in my WP7 phone.

The nicest part of my daughter switching over to WP7 from Android is thatI no longer have to hear her wine about not being able to do what she wants with the phone. She went from loathing her phone to using it incessantly. And she is an all things Google kid, which is why she picked an Android phone in the first place. Yet she has an easier time with the Quantum and WP7.

I spent a week setting up Google+ and trying to embrace what Android had to offer. Time after time, I found the simplest tasks more painful. I went through a bunch of browsers, and done worked as well as IE did in WP7. And IE needs work.

Android has one big advantage. It's freaking cheap. It's flexibility and app store makes it a convoluted mess. It's nice for the Anti-Apple brigade and power users that think they need some insane level of flexibility. For once, the nerds won, so smartphones' version of Linux won mindshare.

I'll take WP7 and WP8 while it lasts.

[dbdynsty25]

I think that's less about Microsoft and more about Google, really...which, of course, from a market perspective, I understand. I also understand your hesitancy to adopt the platform. I couldn't give two green shits about google integration, so I'm good...

Which is exactly why you're part of the <5% of smartphone users who use a Windows Phone. Gmail, I believe, has a majority of the email accounts on smartphones these days (including iPhones), so it would be smart for everyone to make it accessible. It's not about google, it's about the companies freezing their users out. iPhones had to have a developer make a real gmail client (Sparrow) to make it worth a crap. Windows phone needs the same thing or it'll never catch up.

Wait, Gmail? I use Gmail. It's built right into the UI, so now I'm back to not quite understanding what you mean. My Gmail is just fine.

You are using Gmail through an imap server, not native Gmail. It's kinda like accessing your email through an Outlook client. It syncs, but on intervals and not in real time. Plus adding items to multiple folders at a time isn't supported unless you're duplicating messages. Contact and Calendar syncing for Gmail also isn't supported. Turn by turn navigation with Google maps...not supported. Google talk, not supported with a decent client (there are a few but they are sh*t). Google Voice? Not supported. All the apps I use daily, are not supported or not supported well enough to make the switch.

As Aristo said...the nerds won w/ Android. No doubt about it. And yes, I NEED that level of flexibility. The walled garden of iTunes and Windows phone is too restricting to me. Which is also the reason I use an unlocked Galaxy Nexus w/ a custom rom catering to my needs/wants. Most of the other Android phones are too restrictive to someone like myself as well, so I stick with the "developer" phone. I'd love to get the better camera with the Galaxy SIII when it comes out in a week, but I can't leave my unlocked environment on the Nexus. But that's subject to change of course.

Aristo, mind me asking which Android phone you played with? There really are a lot of sh*t Android phones and that is why anytime someone here asks me about phones, I really say unless you're going to pay for a high end device, it's not worth it. Anything other than the top of the line phones are severely lacking in A LOT of areas, so you really have to be careful what you buy.

As for Windows Phone...the only reason I believe they are still going to be around in a year or two is because of Nokia. Nokia made a tactical error in picking WP...and it's going to cost them significant market share. They could have made a boatload if they had become an Android only supplier. We'll see if it works out, but right now, they are blowing through money. The Nokia 900 wasn't nearly as popular as they thought it would be and it's one of the most beautifully designed phones I've ever seen. The thing holding it back is software. It's just fact.

[Teal]

Well, all things being equal, I'm still a big fan, and at the expense of the other two. Never thought I'd say that. I used to love iPhone, Android...not so much, but I didn't want to 'fiddle' with a phone as much as Android seems to require. The native turn by turn works very well for me, as does the voice recognition. It's not Siri-level, but I think Siri is just a toy, mostly, a novelty. The Live Tiles are fantastic, because half the time, I don't have to open the app to get the basic news, weather, and calendar events I need.

Everyone is entitled to their preferences, but for me, I'm a WP loyalist, just because I've never had a more easy to use smartphone UI.

[dbdynsty25]

Everyone is entitled to their preferences, but for me, I'm a WP loyalist, just because I've never had a more easy to use smartphone UI.

Someone has to be on the team.

[Aristo]

Her phone was an LG Phoenix running Android 2.2. Not a great a phone.

It's exactly where that flexibility sucks. You have to a way more educated consumer than 90% of the public is. But she's was 13, and it was the exact form factor she wanted. All I heard was how the phone didn't work. She kept running out of space because nothing would save to the memory card.

But what really turned me off was the UI. Despite the wigets and such, the phone was just a pain to use.

When I am listening to a podcast in my car, I pull the cord out, and it pauses. When I get back in mhy car and plug it back in, the lock screen pops up, along with the ability to hit play, and it picks up where I left off. It can do this because Zune is built into the OS.. There are some other podcast apps, but for the basic use that 90 5 of the public would need, there is no reason to pay for them.

I'd love to swap out Bing for Google search, but I can't complain. I can say, "Jazz at the Bistro", and it will find the address and phone number, which will be clickable to dial or bring up the maps. And The map program has turn by turn voice navigation. and the GPS worked about a million times better.

Google Maps was basically useless. And not just in real time, but it terrible find locations and mapping destinations. I got freaking lost trying to find the QT I was meeting the guy to buy my Quantum because it was so bad. It just made me laugh.

Here's the thing. My daughter told me that when she showed her friends her new phone, my old Quantum, they told her Windows phones suck. But when she started showing them the phone, they liked it a lot. But when high school kids automatically dismiss your phone, you are screwed.

If you need the power and flexibility, Android makes sense, especially if you are going to spring for the high end phones.

But WP7 does what Apple products are known for. It just works.

I have my doubts if that is going to be enough, though.

[dbdynsty25]

Her phone was an LG Phoenix running Android 2.2. Not a great a phone.

snip...

But WP7 does what Apple products are known for. It just works.

I have my doubts if that is going to be enough, though.

Anything pre-Ice Cream Sandwich, I'd probably agree with you, but Android has evolved into the "it just works" camp now as well. If your only experience is with a free Android phone running the horrific 2.2 software (oh my god that was the worst version of all of them, seriously), of course you're going to be jaded and think the whole OS is sh*t. That's fair, and that's what happens when Android manufacturers make phones for the low end market too. It's one of the main reasons that HTC has stated that they will only make high end devices w/ Android from now on. They want to build phones that are built well and run better hardware...so that Android can be thought of as it should...a high end device like the iPhone.

Now, the reason WP7 just works is because they aimed REALLY low in terms of specs. Low res screens need virtually no processing power. Notice how there aren't any HD WP's out there? They all have the same 2010 resolution. Now there is nothing wrong with that. You're right, they just work. But that's it. There is a reason that Apple is changing to a 4" screen at a higher res...because that's what people want. That's another downfall to the WP platform as a whole. You stick a picture on an iPhone or GSIII, HTC One X, Nexus, whatever...and stick the same pic on a Windows phone...the Windows phone is going to get slaughtered. Yes, some people won't be able to tell the difference. Those are not the people that would be buying a high end phone anyway...like your 13 year old daughter.

I hope you don't think this is a fanboy post...and that I hate WP. I definitely do not. Like I said before, if I could get my google services that I've invested in on a WP, I'd definitely use one daily, but I can't. It just pains me to hear people say Android is sh*t when their only experience is with a horrific phone w/ horrific software. I die a little inside when I hear that. You clearly didn't give the OS a fair shake and there are so many pluses in the newer software it's not even up for debate. You can say it's for nerds and guys who tweak...yes, it is that if you want it to be, but it's also for guys like my dad and my wife who just want to do normal phone things. It's reached the "it just works" status.

I'm completely agnostic when it comes to companies and their products. I will use whatever OS/Phone/Laptop/Tablet is best. I don't care about the make or model. It's why half of the time when someone asks me for a recommendation about a phone, I'll tell them to get an iPhone. Hell, Spooky just asked me the other day of the pluses and minuses between an iPhone and a Galaxy Note...I told him he should probably stick with the iPhone just for ease of use with all his current media. He went with with the Note and he's a happy dude (for the most part). I hope WP steps up their hardware and gets some higher end phones but as of now, their stuff is about 2 years behind. Once they bump their resolution and throw in a few quad core processors, they can claw their way back into the game. But near as I can tell that's not going to be until winter this year. Maybe.

[Aristo]

It will be interesting to see what WP8 brings, but you are right about the resolution. My wife has the iPhone 4s, and it is impressive.

I'm like you in that I just use and play with whatever fits my needs. Our computers are Macs, and we have an iPad. I was always going to get an iPhone, but I liked the idea of a physical keyboard, and the Quantum got good reviews. The more I played with it, the more I decided to just give it a shot.

The end result is that my interest in an iPhone has plummeted. As much as my daughter loves the Quantum now, she still wants an iPhone. She's turning 15 in July. She's not immune to wanting the cool phone.

But the Zune software has turned my iPod into something I only use when I work out. It integrates Twitter and Facebook pretty damn well. And it is freaking nimble ,which makes Flixter, IMDB, and ESPN more convenient than my wife's iPhone. And I thought I would never utter a preference for IE, but it's been all thatI want from a smartphone browser. Dolphin was cool, but the phone was so un-nimble that I hated browsing.

My daughter's big complaint is the lack of a tumblr app. But I think I need to ban her from that anyway. It's like crack for her.

I am with Teal, in that I want to see it make some advance in marketshare in order to help drive development. but if it fails, it won't be the first thing I preferred that failed to attract the masses.

[bdunn13]

I got the new EVO a few weeks ago at launch. It was the first time I have ever pre-ordered a phone and it gets locked down by customs for a couple of weeks.

I am wanting to get back into some Android development. I have a few crappy apps on the market that have money trickling in for me, but I want to write something better.

I have been making games for a living for two years now so I was thinking about trying to make a mobile game. The only problem with this is art - I am no artists.


As far as the Evo - I really love it. The screen is huge compared to my Incredible.. when I pick up my Incredible now, it feels like a thumb-tack.



Here is a panoramic pic I took of my house in Madison, AL with the EVO. It is not perfect, you can see a couple of places where the software made some errors in joining the pictures, but overall, it is very nice. Warning - its a 15M picture.

http://12098springwood.com/images/front_pan.png

BD

Edit: ooops left out the link to the image.

[Spooky]

Interesting posts about phone/OS preferences.

As DB mentioned...I have recently made a major switch.

I have been an iPhone guy since day 1. Literally, got the first iPhone on launch day and never looked back. I am a pretty die hard Apple guy as well - iMac, iPad, iPhone, AppleTV, iTunes, etc...But in the past 1-2 years I have become really bored with the iOS interface and the phone size/screen. I am higher than average gadget geek but not a super gadget freak. I was very intrigued by Android when it first came out and, like many others that were already invested in the iPhone for it's simplicity, ease and beauty, I thought Android was awful. Both from a hardware and software standpoint. Then in the past few years I would try out a co-workers Android or my mother-in-law's Droid and continue to think..."man, I want to like this but it's just painfully clunky". I continued to think that iPhone = luxurious curves and Android = sterile squares.

But in the last 2 years I keep seeing people busting out these beautiful phones with displays that look incredible, even from a distance - and they're not iPhones. This made me start looking at Android phones again. Then I'd see forum posts, FB posts, YouTube clips, gadget sites reviews, etc...for this new wave of powerful Android phones and the newer versions of Android (Gingerbread and ICS). Couple this buzz with feeling bored with my 5 year old interface on iOS and I decided to start investigating again.

I started to really think about what I use my phone for on a daily basis and then see if this new wave of Android could accommodate. I make calls, send/receive texts, email, browse the web, check the weather, watch a YouTube clip here and there, use maps, Yelp, listen to music and use the camera. I stopped trying out every new, cool featured iOS app a long time ago. I don't play games on my phone. So I figured it was time to see if these new phones could impress me.

Through lots of research I became extremely interested in the Samsung Galaxy Note. You know, the mini-tablet thingy that kinda looks like a phone too...!?! I watched YoutTube clip after YouTube clip, read article after article, and then I asked DB. When I felt like I was ready to check these things out face to face I went to the local ATT store and walked out an hour later with one.

Then, after spending 3-4 days with the new Galaxy Note and putting it through it's paces, I sold my iPhone. The screen itself - the resolution, colors, vibrancy - I just can't look at anything else now. And man have I been able to tweak this thing to make it look and feel super useful and slick to me. Now, it's got some quirks, for sure. Small things that make me scratch my head sometimes. But I think it's a combination of being new to Android with a handfull of things that are just not as smooth as iOS. But they are not deal breakers. Example, both my cars have Bluetooth connections for audio (music). Every time I got into my car the iPhone would start up right away from the last music app I was using (iTunes, Spotify, etc...) and stream it at the phone volume it defaults to for Bluetooth streaming (100% level). My Galaxy Note does not always start playing automatically and it always uses the media volume that the phone speaker is set at (usually very low) and does not automatically switch to the necessary Bluetooth volume output. I have run into a couple odd things like this BUT the pro's way outweigh the cons at this point (and I found an app that switches settings when it recognizes that it's connected to my cars Bluetooth).

When I was at the ATT store I took a long look at the new Nokia WP7 phones. I truly think they are neat and being a UX architect myself, I appreciate the direction they are heading. But, like DB just mentioned, I couldn't get over how the screens seemed like a year or two behind these new, high end Android phones. The resolution was much lower to my eyes. I guess my eyes were right according to what DB just wrote.

[wco81]

I may add an Android device if the new maps in iOS 6 is as bare in mapping data as many have reported. It wouldn't be surprising, it took Google years to build up its maps, supplement it with Street View and the like.

Not just for turn-by-turn with cars but for navigating and finding directions to places when on foot. I've not used the public transportation routing that Google Maps has but I have used trip calculation engines for transportation systems in various foreign cities.

Had some problems with my Garmin too, on this last trip, so I think a mobile device is the way to go for car navigation, though that may require buying an app, since you may not always have mobile data overseas.

[dbdynsty25]

So let me get this straight...no Windows 7 phone can be upgraded to Windows Phone 8? Really? Hope you like WP7 Lumia 900 owners who just bought their phones. What a circle jerk. Cool new features, horrible upgrade path. Bravo.